And Next: Putting that PhD to Use
How to use what I learned for the glory of God
While trying to work up the nerve and expertise to find a publisher to write a book about what I learned during my research for my PhD, I came up with a more short-term solution. (Hopefully, the first part will also still materialize!)
Well, actually, it wasn’t so much me as it was His Eminence Mor George Kourie, Patriarchal Vicar of Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. After I shared my story at the SOKAD Youth European Gathering 2024 back at the end of March in Warburg at our monastery Dayro d’Mor Jakob (I wrote about it here on Substack), I managed to ask His Eminence what he thought about how I might make use of what I learned to the benefit of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
His answer: maybe record videos to explain concepts and learnings. I thought about that long and hard. Did I have the skills to do this? Did I have the patience and energy to consistently do it?
Lo and behold, then came June of this year. As a background, my husband Nick is Greek Orthodox, and he and I attend St. George Orthodox here in Prescott, AZ, together on Sunday mornings, before I get in my car and drive 1 1/2 hours south to my own parish, St. Mary’s Syriac Orthodox Church in Glendale, AZ.
In June, Nick’s priest, Father Jeffrey, together with Kenny, the man who has been responsible for our web presence, asked me to lead the social media team for the church. After educating ourselves on social media strategy, I was off and running with a team of four others. As you can see, we have a pretty tight schedule, which has taken up a lot of my time (but I love it).
All this to say, I have taught myself a ton of skills over the past three months to make all this happen.
While I would love to do similar social media for my own Syriac Orthodox Church, the reality is that I don’t speak Arabic, and we need English content for our young faithful. And then His Eminence Mor George popped back into my head!
After I had recorded my own story again for the sake of our up-and-coming youth group at my church, it dawned on me that I could just keep recording videos and extract shorts/reels out of these videos to publish to a number of social media platforms. I had acquired the skills over the prior three months!
Now, mind you, none of this is trivial. I am not a clergyman. I don’t want to presume I can teach what they might teach. However, I spent two-and-a-half years studying Syriac Orthodoxy, and having come from a Protestant (or rather evangelical) background myself, I can certainly share a lot of my learnings from my research work to help explain both for my Syriac Orthodox brothers and sisters but also for my evangelical friends what we actually believe and live in our church.
Here is the intro pinned to the top of my Abun d’Bashmayo Facebook page:
“Who is behind Abun d’Bashmayo?
My name is Elke Speliopoulos. (Elke is pronounced Elka or Elkuh. With Speliopoulos, you are on your own.)
I was received into the Syriac Orthodox Church on January 8, 2023 after forty-five years as an evangelical. On January 9, 2023, I was on my way to Volos in Greece to attend the global meeting of IOTA (the International Orthodox Theological Assocation). Talk about a quick change in my academic settings! IOTA is great. Find them at https://iota-web.org.
I share about my path to Orthodoxy, the Syriac Orthodox faith, worshipping in both Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian settings (see below about my husband), and the differences I see to the evangelical world. I hold a PhD in Intercultural Studies (my dissertation led me to Orthodoxy), an MDiv (Master of Divinity in Missional Studies), and an MAR (Master of Arts in Religion in Biblical Studies, focus on Old Testament). I am originally from Germany where I was raised but have lived in the US over half my life. I am married to a Greek Orthodox American. We live in Prescott, Arizona. We share two adult kids, three grandsons, and three dogs.
My prayer is that we would all learn about one another and live to the glory of God. Check out LOI - the Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative! You can find them at https://www.loimission.net/.
You will also find Abun d’Bashmayo on Substack, Instagram, X, Threads, TikTok, and Twitter. Your feedback is always welcome, as is your correction should I misstate anything.
Finally, should you not be able to sleep at night, my dissertation can be found here: https://www.proquest.com/docview/3043665734/7F896E84FBF34428PQ/1?sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses .”
So far, the feedback has been very positive. I would love for you to give me yours! Any and all feedback is very welcome.
Here are the links - I’d love for you to check them out and subscribe, if interested:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/abundbashmayo.edu/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/abun.dbashmayo/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@abundbashmayo
X (Twitter) - https://x.com/abundbashmayo
Threads - https://www.threads.net/@abun.dbashmayo
YouTube - https://youtube.com/@abundbashmayo
Most of all, please pray for me. I want nothing more than to share my love for Christ and my love for His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
God bless you sister! This is a wonderful work :-) Fr John, Antiochian Orthodox priest.